Oxley's Homer Boosts Florida

COLLEGES

Gators Up Record To 8-0 As 2-run Blast In 10th Tips Hatters

February 14, 1989|By Alan Schmadtke of The Sentinel Staff

DELAND — Tim Oxley simplified a game of crazy bounces and comebacks with a 10th-inning home run Monday, keeping the University of Florida unbeaten and leaving Stetson University to save an upset for another day.

Oxley's two-run homer to center field off Stetson relief ace Tommy Hickox broke an 8-8 tie, and Gators reliever Jamie McAndrew held off the Hatters for a 10-8 victory before 610 fans at Conrad Park.

Florida (8-0), ranked fifth in the nation, led the Hatters (2-2), 7-3, entering the bottom of the seventh, but then saw Stetson rally for four runs off starter Todd McCray and McAndrew. The tying run scored when Gators second baseman Bill Minnis was victimized by a bad-hop grounder by Doug Pringle.

The Gators scored a run in the ninth for an 8-7 lead, but Stetson tied it with a run when Oxley, a reserve first baseman from Apopka, fell trying to field an errant throw.

McAndrew (1-0) allowed Stetson a pair of baserunners with one out in the 10th but struck out Mike Sempeles and Mike Pinckes to end the game.

''This was one of the craziest games I've ever seen,'' Florida Coach Joe Arnold said. ''We got them, then we don't got them. Then we got them again and then we don't got them again. Then we got them again.

''We just kept fighting back. . . . Give Tim Oxley a lot of credit.''

Give some as well to Florida freshman third baseman Herbert Perry, who went 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles and an RBI. He became the first Gator to have five hits in a game since Rodney Brewer had five against Georgia in 1986.